Youth Participation Weakens in Basketball, Football, Baseball, Soccer

Fewer Children Play Team Sports

By

Ryan Wallerson

Updated Jan. 31, 2014 12:44 a.m. ET

If there's an unofficial national day for America's sports passion, it is Super Bowl Sunday, and one of the largest U.S. television audiences of 2014 is expected to watch the Seattle Seahawks face the Denver Broncos.

But ahead of this weekend's spectacle in New Jersey, there is some sobering news about the country's most-popular team sports: Fewer children are playing them.